We are Carambolasia and we cycled 4500 km through Southeast Asia AUA

Now almost four hours we are over and out. Thank you all for you questions. We enjoyed the time and we hope to see you on the road next to us soon. We will close with someone who has a clue about adventure:

It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.

J.R.R Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Hello everybody, our names are Cath and Rob ( http://i.imgur.com/p10am7j.jpg) and we traveled nine months total through India, China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia. After four months traveling in India and China we felt bored from backpacking all the time. We decided to buy two bicycles in Vientiane, Laos and hit the road till Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We visited four countries and cycled 4500 km (yes, sometimes we took a bus) in five months. We had no former experience in a trip like this. We even didn't enjoy cycling, but we've grew on it.

Here are some pictures which should proof that we did this:

http://imgur.com/a/OkayK http://www.carambolasia.com

On a trip like this without any planning are many possibilities for problems, here are some of them we went through:

  • Dogs
  • As a couple we had bad times and good times
  • Rob was major sick in Cambodia
  • No road maps
  • A lot of flat tires because of the poor equipment available
  • Cycling while Monsoon

Our user names are: VarVarna (Rob) and Carambolasia (Cath), if you have any question please ask them and we try to answer them as best as we can. If you want to ask a question in German or French feel free to do it. We will start answering questions at 17:20 Central European Time.

Now almost four hours we are over and out. Thank you all for you questions. We enjoyed the time and we hope to see you on the road next to us soon. We will close with someone who has a clue about adventure:

It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.

J.R.R Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Comments: 51 • Responses: 11  • Date: 

InsaneLogicc7 karma

What would you consider to be the worst single thing that has happened to you during your journey?

Varvarna10 karma

Hey Rob here, for me would it be the infestation of my guts by some micro organism. Couldn't sleep, couldn't eat and i took three weeks till it was over. It was really a experience, I lost a lot of weight and was worried at some point about my existence.

InsaneLogicc1 karma

Did you continue travelling while you had it or did you stop untill you got well again?

Varvarna2 karma

Both, at first i tried to convince myself that everything will be fine and its just a little diarrhea again. We cycled at first but at one day in Cambodia we stopped in the middle of nowhere to find a car which would us take to the next city because i felt in real bad shape. Then the whole thing started to get ugly i tried to self diagnose because of a lack of a doctor. Which went good but not well enough at the end it took almost three weeks in three stinky Hotel rooms....

spectrosoldier3 karma

Are you considering cycling elsewhere?

Varvarna6 karma

If I could I would cycle everywhere. What I really want to do is to cycle from Asia to Europe or vice versa. That would be great, only the route is problem today.

Tanks shouldn't stop us from meeting all those people on the way. But some day I will step into the shoes of Marco Polo....someday....

ebrowa2 karma

What was the best thing you guys experienced from this trip?

Varvarna5 karma

Imagine you sitting on your bike cycling through a hot and humid jungle, then suddenly there comes a village along. You can see 20 huts. You enter the village and in seconds are 20 children behind you which are screaming and shouting: " Sabaadi" they all want a high five. The other villager stand on the side and smile and wink. That's the best experience ever. That gave me back hope for mankind.

ADDENDUM: That happened in almost every village. I feel so lucky to met them all.

ebrowa2 karma

That sounds amazing!! I'm glad you had such experiences.

Varvarna1 karma

Thank you, were both really glad that we tried this.

the_straw091 karma

Hey ive been planning to cycle across canada. What advice do you have for someone like me?

Varvarna3 karma

Leave your home as you and come home as someone else!

It will be hard some days just pull through you will be paid later I promise.

Fabafaba1 karma

Where there any places of terrain where you have particularly enjoyed cycling through ?

Varvarna5 karma

Loved every terrain sometimes more sometimes less. But the best was the coastline of Thailand. Jungle mixed with beaches, Mangrove swamps, green mountains and wooden fishing villages. More like from a travel advertisement.

But most fun was dirt track in Lao, with a lot of potholes which brought my organs back in good order.

Tannenhonig1 karma

Have you been to an european stile restaurant? Like a pizzaria or something like that.

Varvarna3 karma

As an Italian I couldn't resist when I learned that in Phnom Penh are two Italian restaurants managed by my countrymen. We had pizza which I dearly missed and after two months of noodle soup this was a thing. I just told the owner to shut up and take my money 😁

Edit: I am German as well and in Thailand we discovered the "Schnitzelwirt" a Bavarian restaurant filled with goodies from home like: beer and Schnitzel. Couldn't resist two times

Tannenhonig2 karma

And did one of the both or maybe both taste like home?

Varvarna3 karma

For sure, the pizza wasn't perfect but almost Italy. The German restaurant could be in Germany didn't spot or taste any difference except for the weather which is amazing in Thailand and really bad in Germany.

chiodani1 karma

How did you choose the name?

"Carambol" pronounced in Hungarian means accident (typically on the road, car crash, etc).

Glad to see you survived the journey without any serious Carambols :D

Varvarna2 karma

Hey sorry was occupied in the kitchen, preparing some pasta. Now to the question. Cath comes from France and I from Germany which are complety different counties which also have a long rivalry. So we decided to Carambol and Karambol which means the same in French and in German and since today I know in Hungarian as well, to collide. There is also a great Tv show which uses a similar name. Here you go: http://sites.arte.tv/karambolage/de

Streetsyo-6 karma

Is penis in vagina already sex? xd

Varvarna6 karma

That's such philosophical question I am too dumb to answer I just can hike or ride bicycles. Nothing more nothing less. Take care